Braden Krusey: The Second Coming of Van Gogh

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“I tried”, a masterpiece by Braden Krusey

Braden Krusey first became interested in art at the age of three, on a trip to Paris. There, he visited the Louvre and bore witness to some of the greatest and most influential works of art to be created by the human race.

“It was incredible,” three-year-old Krusey said. “Nothing else I’ve ever witnessed even comes close, and I doubt anything ever will.”

Ever since that day, Krusey has dedicated every moment of his free time to honing and improving his skills. He started small, with doodling recreations of the Mona Lisa on his math homework in crayon. Then, he moved on to pencil and paint. Throughout the years, Krusey has dabbled with painting, sculpting, modern art, theater, and metaphysical poetry. Despite the variety of his work, Braden Krusey has always loved drawing more than anything.

In an interview, Krusey said, “I’ve always had a soft spot for drawing. It’s something about the movement, the flow. I move my arm in one broad stroke and the pen moves with it. I think of it as an extension of myself. Everything I’m capable of, it’s capable of as well. And what it can do is often what I cannot by myself.”

From pencil to pen to marker, Krusey has experimented with a variety of different drawing utensils to achieve a style that is uniquely his own. But, it was never quite right. That was, until he discovered a most unorthodox tool: the dry erase marker.

“I realized that sometimes the most conventional tools aren’t what speak to me the most,” Krusey told us. “When people look at a dry erase marker, they don’t think of it as a reliable artistic utensil. That’s what makes me different from other artists. I can see the potential in every tool and utilize it to its fullest.”

After Krusey started using dry erase markers, he became even more passionate about art than before. In recent years, he’s drawn hundreds of landscapes, portraits, and abstract images, all with just markers. The featured drawing is only one of the many that he’s made, but it’s arguably his greatest work so far. The immaculate strokes help paint a vivid picture. While usually the lines drawn by dry erase markers are quite thick, Krusey used this to his advantage to craft an image equal parts realistic and abstract. Truly, this work of art embodies the fine line between waking and sleep, reality and fiction, night and day. But, what this piece is really about is finding beauty in chaos. The smiling, shining sun brings thoughts of a hot summer day while the stylized nuclear warhead delves into a darker and more morbid side of the human condition. The road is clear yet uneven. The bench is vivid yet distorted. The cat and the dog (not Yoda) are on opposite sides of the canvas, separate in character yet similar in expression. Even the trees lack consistency.

Some might call such a piece “sentimental” or “tacky,” but anyone capable of looking below the surface can see the beauty, fantasy, and dread within and portrayed by such a simple work of art. It’s clear to see that Braden Krusey is an artist ahead of his time. There is no doubt that future generations will admire the beauty of his masterworks.